Yes I have tanked and healed when needed, it’s a great pinch utility class as well as being a very solid dps
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Ive tanked every dungeon ive done on my 34 shaman so far. Not really to prove anything but because people just dont want to tank, or wait for tanks. So if we’re just waiting and I mention that I can tank as shaman the groups are usually okay with it because theyd rather try than wait.
They go fine unless someone is significantly higher level than me, shaman threat seems more reliant on high damage and a recently trained earthshock than other tanks.
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Thats what I keep hearing in this current iteration. I tried it in vanilla and it worked fine for 5 mans for few dungeons I attempted it (Rfc, Sfk, SM, Temple, if mem serves me right). I can see it still working, especially if you are running a coordinated group (played with 3 other people I knew irl + 1 pug back then).
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Shaman Tanks in Classic are fine for anything but raids. I tanked all of Vanilla 5mans on a Shaman and a Fury Warrior.
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Shaman tanks are fine until 50-60 dungeons. I Shaman tanked in the beta all the way to ZF with pug groups and with dps talents. The game is incredibly easy, anyone who denies a shaman a tank spot is an idiot.
Just keep an updated shield and 1-hander in your bags and you’ll be fine.
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Little Story.
In the ye olde days of TBC I was running a SHAMAN up. I got into a scarlet cathedral run. The tank left after 20 mins or so.
We started talking about calling it a day. Someone then asks me “shaman do you have a shield and 1 hand wepon?” i actually had got one of each recently that i figured I’d vendor or d/e or whatever. I said yes. They then said “slap that puppy on and you tank!” I was a little taken back by that. But they insisted.
I ended up tanking sm cathedral mostly in its entirety. And that was the first time I’d ever tanked in dungeon.
Shaman tanking works fine.
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I tanked as a shaman in Raid content & Dungeon In both the original, and BC and i am currently tanking classic versions of wow.
The major disadvantages that shamans have is lack of itemization. Basically the gear with the stats they need is very difficult to get.
This could be fixed if blizzard buffs the tank related talents in enhancement, and also changed stone claw to have more health, and add all or part of its threat generation to the shaman after the totem died.
That being said, like most tanks (druid being the exception) A lot of the aoe threat is generated by goblin-engineering explosives.
They have other major advantages, Geared correctly, they can generate equal or slightly higher single target threat then a warrior, and they have a little more damage potential.
At current, your viable to be an off tank in raids, but your not viable enough to be main tank (due to gear related issues, and nothing else).
Some key points to know
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A lot of your play will be around earthbind totem. There is a tactic called “dipping” where you will dip in to auto attack, then move out and kite. The reason you do this is because npc’s will attack faster then you, so if you remove this benefit they have, and exchange 1:1 attacks, you doing more damage will mitigate a lot of the damage they can do passively.
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Stone claw is good for holding threat for a short time for example, if adds are added to the current fight and you need some way to peel people. You should generally use this totem specifically for that purpose and not for trying to long term tank.
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Earth shock is your primary taunt mechanic, and if you go into elemental some you can reduce the taunt cd from 6 second to 5.
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Rock biter is deceptive. You think it gives you more threat when you auto, but in fact, it increases all threat you generate, and it does this by x72 threat generation per a second per the attack.
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Earth skin totem reduces your damage taken by around 18%. In general you will want to use this as much as possible.
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Grace of air totem gives dodge, use it!
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use rank 1 earth shock to kick spells.
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use Chain lightning to pull aoe groups.
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Stat priority is
- defense rating > Agility > str > stam
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They have 0 aoe threat and it makes everything way slow.
Do not recommend.
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I have tanked SM graveyard and below its a slow process and you need to ajust on the fly, sometimes it works sometimes it fails.
it’s been proven that sharmans can even tank in raids as off tanks so ofc sharmans can tank dungeons.
You are totally wrong about this.
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Earth shock generates a significant amount of threat (x2 of the spell damage or better).
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Rock biter generates threat just having it on, and it adds x72 modifier to tps for any offensive ability the shaman can do.
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Stoneclaw will aoe taunt targets.
In truth, between warriors (most optimal tank) and Shamans, The generate about the same about of threat and it really just comes down to who has better gear.
I am actively tanking
I Tanked SM Cath AOE cleave runs, pulling all of the mobs + boss in the cath at once. I farmed 4-5 hours of this for my 35-40 level range.
I Tanked ZF AoE Zombie Runs actively for about 6 hours, pulling 3-4 groups at a time until graves, and around 6-10 zombies at a time during these runs.
I am tanking Mara Zerg - Princess runs Currently.
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There is no mail gear with def rating? and if youre taking druid tank gear i see that being HIGHLY critable and not viable to be healed. (I could be wrong i play plate and Cloth so idk much for mail or Leather itemization)
Chain lightning + rockbiter and not even a frost mage will peel you.
You have no idea what you’re talking about.
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thx for the input noori, i’m defenetly gonna try it once i put my hands on a decent weapon/shield cause atm i’m not that rich and i already had to change my talents once so atm the 5g is all i have
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Chain lightning + rockbiter and not even a frost mage will peel you.
You have no idea what you’re talking about.
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Chain Lightning is 3 mobs.
You can do way bigger pulls than that if you are a bigboy.
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oh and noori, is there a way to link your classic shaman profile just to look at what weapons/etc you use?
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It should be noted there are a few builds for enhancement tanking. One of them allow you to cast spells with out draw back. This is an excellent way to do dungeon tanking, as it allows you to spam dungeons with cl while tanking. In combination to Rockbiter+earth shock + explosives, you are sure to keep threat.
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How many times does OP need to be told that it wont work past 30 before he listens? I know from experience. He asked what we all thought and hes not liking our answers. If you are gonna do it then go do it. But for the last time your gonna get your a$$ kicked in cathedral+.
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I’ve tanked most level 60 instances on a Shaman. Late night post raid DM runs as an example.
But Shaman do have crap AE threat.
And last about 2 seconds if your trying to AE.
Shamans have excellent single target threat.
Shamans have very strong 2 target threat.
Anything beyond that and you need CC or Pre CC.
First I think thats great. I love to see when someone pushes a class in a way in which others don’t.
But AE tanking at level 60 isn’t the same.
Its like dps specs healing in the 30-50 range, its completely doable.
However with that being said…Shaman are fine for instance tanking up to and including level 60.
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Don’t do it. Really, just don’t. I mained a shaman in vanilla and tanking just isn’t what you want to be doing above the lowest content. You will not have the survivability. That shield does not make you a tank. You’ll also have the joy of repeatedly taking crits to the face which actual tanks will not have.